Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to audio devices and, more specifically, to a technique for controlling and altering the user's experience and/or acoustic output of audio devices that are used in conjunction with each other.
Description of the Related Art
The popularity of portable music players has increased dramatically in the past decade. Modern portable music players allow music enthusiasts to listen to music in a wide variety of different environments without requiring access to a wired power source. For example, a battery-operated portable music player such as an iPod® is capable of playing music in a wide variety of locations without needing to be plugged in. Conventional portable music players are typically designed to have a small form factor in order to increase portability. Accordingly, the batteries within such music players are usually small and only provide several hours of battery life. Similarly, the speakers within such music players are typically small and mono-aural, and usually designed to consume minimal battery power in order to extend that battery life.
As a result, the speakers within conventional portable music players often times have a dynamic range covering only a fraction of the frequency spectrum associated with most modern music. For example, modern music often includes a wide range of bass frequencies. However, the speakers within a conventional portable music player usually cannot play all of the bass frequencies due to physical limitations of the speakers themselves, or because doing so would quickly drain the batteries within the music player.
To improve a user's audio experience it is often desirable to link two or more portable speakers and an audio source, such as a music player, together to provide a richer and enveloping audio experience. Due to limitations in standard wireless communication protocols it is a non-trivial task to setup and control the playback of audio delivered from an audio source, such as a computing device (e.g., music player), which may include an iPod®, iPhone®, iPad®, Android™ phone, Samsung phone, Samsung Galaxy®, Squeeze™ box, or other similar audio delivery enabled computing device. Therefore, there is need for a wireless speaker, wireless speaker communication method and computing device software application, which are all able to work together and be easily setup and used to deliver audio from the audio source to a plurality of portable audio speakers.
Moreover, the user's listening experience is often controlled by the environment in which the audio information is delivered from the portable speakers. For example, a user's experience will be different if the playback of the audio is made in a small room versus an outdoor location. Therefore, there is a need for a wireless speaker and control method that allow a user to seamlessly configure and control the audio delivered from two or more speakers based on the speaker type and environment in which the speakers are positioned.
As the foregoing illustrates, what is needed in the art is an improved wireless speaker system and audio controlling elements that are able to provide an improved sound quality, an extended battery life and improved controlling method.